Dorian wrote: That's because the Yakuza team (which is pretty much the Shenmue team, or rather what's left of it) makes games for... FUN. Not that they don't want to cash on them. Of course they want to! But they want to earn the cash fairly. You know, doing their best given the time and budge and actually appreciating the gaming culture with in-game treats. Not like... say... creating interactive movies that mask their true identity with pseudo-artistic nonsense about human emotions and lies about reinventing the wheel. Ironically, the Yakuza games feature far more human drama than something like Heavy Rain. Maybe that's because SEGA actually takes the effort to hire genuine writers instead of relying on self-appointed scribblers? Just sayin'.
It's amazing to me how the Yakuza games can exist in the west. It almost seems like they just want to make the fans happy as if it was a passion for them. I don't have any numbers but I doubt these games sell well here.
They make the games how they like it and don't try to please a western audience or anything, something which is very rare these days. It seems most developers just want to make money and that's it (see the rising P2P or F2P Item mall model, or even RMAH that was in Diablo 3) pure crap just to make money.